[title subtitle=”WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGES courtesy Kris and Lisa Bailey”][/title]
There are few institutions in the history of the United States that better exemplify the very definition of honor, tradition and rigor than the U.S. service academies. And among these, the oldest and most hallowed is the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
It’s just the kind of place by which Ashton Bailey wants to be measured.
“Back in junior high, when everybody was deciding their careers, I think I was about eighth grade when I took a hard look at it,” he says. “I’ve always felt like I don’t want to sit behind a desk, I want to be a leader. I looked into some leadership roles and I decided that being an army officer is probably the best job for my skillset. I wanted to be the best officer that I could be and that meant West Point.”
Ashton comes from an overachieving household, one that knows the meaning of academic excellence as part of a life goal. Both of his parents, Kris and Lisa Bailey, have successful careers in health care – Kris as a certified registered nurse anesthetist and an entrepreneur and Lisa as an instructor in the University of Arkansas Fort Smith nursing program.
His genes notwithstanding, Ashton knew from a tender age the rise and fall of his chosen path would come down to his own initiative and achievement. Everything he did from the fateful day he decided to become a West Point cadet was directed toward that goal.
A swimmer since middle school, he dedicated himself to the activity in high school with renewed fervor. The focus paid off with a trip to the Arkansas state meet as part of the Fort Smith Northside swim team and he also qualified for a national meet through a club team. While COVID-19 cheated him out of actual competition, qualifying for the national meet showed his mettle as an athlete.
West Point cadets are pushed to develop their minds and their character in addition to their bodies, placing academic and extracurricular activities at a premium. Here, too, Ashton made the most of his opportunities while in high school. He finished his Northside career as valedictorian of his senior class – seventy-one percent of any given class at West Point ranks first through fifth among their high school peers – and that title is particularly meaningful considering he’d completed twelve advanced placement (AP) classes in three years.
“From an academic side with clubs, I was the captain of our Northside quiz bowl team; in junior high we actually went to nationals when I was a ninth-grader,” he says. “There’s also a few other clubs like National Honor Society and some computer stuff that I was a part of.
“A big part of my extracurriculars, which I really took seriously, is Junior ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps). I was a platoon leader last year and that really inspired me to go the military route because JROTC instills a lot of those values and tendencies in a person.
Ashton says the personal impact of three years in the JROTC program, as well as how it prepared him on his march toward West Point, cannot be overstated, starting with the instructor.
“Probably my biggest mentor from tenth grade to twelfth grade is Col. Jason Meharg, our JROTC instructor,” he says. “I looked up to him because when he walked in the room, if people were talking, everybody would go quiet. People respected him. He was looked at as somebody that you wanted to be when you grew up. “(Col. Meharg) helped me along my West Point journey; he helped me with the physical aspect, he helped me get my grades up and helped me get the recommendations from fellow teachers. I’ve always looked up to him and he really helped inspire me to be a leader like him, to be an officer like him.”
The United States Military Academy receives more than twelve thousand applicant files from young men and women every year, a number that winnows down to twelve hundred spots in the freshman class. Applicants must qualify both physically and academically, as well as be recommended by their state’s congressional members for inclusion. U.S. Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton and Rep. Steve Womack spoke up for Ashton.
A West Point education is tuition-free, but every minute is earned and, after graduation, returned in the form of a minimum five years of active military duty. Merely applying to the school is an exercise in perseverance.
“When it comes to the application process, it’s much, much different because normal colleges you just write an essay, maybe get an interview and then your application. That’s it,” Ashton says. “But at West Point, you have to go through so many different people. You have to go through retired military officers. You have to go through your congressman, senators, your teachers. You have to go through pretty much everybody you’ve ever interacted with, which you really don’t have to do for most basic colleges.
“Another aspect is not just people, it’s physical. With Harvard or the University of Arkansas, it doesn’t matter how fit you might be, regardless of sports. But with West Point, you have to take a test which involves push-ups, sit-ups, running. It’s hard. You have to train for it. I remember training for it for months and months and really taking it seriously.”
You don’t have to look hard to find videos online showing the rigors of West Point on first-year cadet candidates, which drives ten percent of any given class to drop out. Ashton says he doesn’t fear that, especially after attending preview camps which gave him some barometer of how he measured up.
“Physically and leadership-wise, my sophomore summer year we did a cadet simulation of basic training for JROTC which involved basically everything I’m going to learn in plebe year. I’ll be able to apply that,” he says.
“Then, junior year, there was a camp called the Summer Leadership Experience (SLE) at West Point and it’s an opportunity for them to simulate the basic training that is held there for people that are interested in getting in. I went to that and I really enjoyed it, the campus, how the cadets treat each other and all the physical aspects.”
Those experiences notwithstanding, Ashton knows the real deal will be much more difficult when he reports this summer. Still, he’s viewing the rigors of the curriculum and the distance from his family as the ultimate challenge it is, the first step in a life of duty and honor.
“I’m thinking (long term) maybe go army, be an officer for twenty years then maybe getting into politics or law enforcement or something like that,” he says. “Honestly, I haven’t really looked that far. I’m more focused on West Point.”
